Sunday, October 28, 2007

Healthier Pumpkin Treats

As much as I love my Pumpkin Cupcake recipe, my jeans can only take so much. So how's a gal to get her fix during this glorious season of pumpkins pastries? I found a recipe from Cooking Light that sounded great, but 2 cups of sugar? How “light” is that? Plus, I thought I could health-ify it a bit more by substituting some wholesome whole wheat flour instead of plain old white. The result was pretty tasty, though not quite as dessert-like as a lot of pumpkin breads. It would be stellar with vanilla ice cream, though.

Unfortunately, our camera died this weekend so I didn’t get a picture (but – woohoo! New Sony Cybershot come to mama!). I’ll warn you that the tops didn’t come out quite as glossy as I expected, but they were quite dense and moist on the inside.

In the meantime:

Donkey Dragon says "Happy Howl-oween!"

Pumpkin Bread and/or Muffins

Makes 1 loaf and 6 muffins, or 2 small loaves.

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup sugar

1 cup Splenda

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

2/3 cup canola oil

3 eggs, lightly beaten

1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin

1/2 cup raisins

Cooking spray

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°.

Combine flour and next 9 ingredients (through nutmeg) in a large bowl.

In a separate bowl, combine canola oil, eggs, and pumpkin in a medium bowl; stir with a whisk until smooth. Add to flour mixture, stirring just until moist. Fold in raisins.

Spoon batter into pans (I made one loaf and six muffins, but the original recipe is for 2 loaves) coated with cooking spray.

Bake at 350° for 1 hour or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean (20-30 minutes for muffins).